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CANADIAN
MiningJournal
August 2011
INSIDE
An in-depth look at building the
Copper Mountain Mine
Plus
CANADA’S
COMPANIES
are performing well
CANADIAN
MiningJournal
C O NT E NT S
Departments
5 Editorial
COVER STORY
Calling miners “sissies” (as one ‘consultant’ did) because of peer pressure to act “macho” when it comes to safety is not only ludicrous according to Editor Russ Noble but it’s also something that wouldn’t be tolerated in Canada’s mines thanks to self-governing of the rules by other miners.
Canada’s TOP 40
13mining companies
CMJ’s annual “TOP 40” survey takes a look at Canada’s best mining companies and what areas of mining are most profitable.
6 Mining Matters
Canadian Mining Journal’s popular “Mining Matters” pages take a quick look at some of the names and events that are making headlines across Canada and around the world.
BC Copper Mine
18 Copper Mountain Mining’s
new project starts producing in record time.
8 Competitive Edge
CMJ’s Foreign Correspondent Jaquelina Jimena talks about “The new CSR frontier” and how important it is to introduce the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility into the universities of the world.
CANADIANS WORKING OUTSIDE CANADA
In Alaska
10 In My Mine(d)
22Fire River Gold revives Nixon
This month’s Guest Column has been written by Yusra Siddiquee, a Partner at Norton Rose OR LLP, and entitled “Key Changes to Canada’s Foreign Work Program.”
Fork gold project in remote site.
In Mexico
34 Products
A look at some of the products and services now available to the Canadian mining industry.
interest in historic Dolores gold/silver mine.
38 Exploration Opportunities
A regular column by the firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers looks at Columbia’s mining industry and how it is growing, but not without growing pains.
In Nevada
30Silver Predator continues to
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ABOUT THE COVER
Copper Mountain Mining’s project in Southern British Columbia has gone from a dream into production in a short period of time thanks to teams of workers that have done some heavy slugging to get the
CANADIAN
MiningJournal
www.canadianminingjournal.com
August 2011
INSIDE
JOB
An in-depth look at building the Copper Mountain Mine
For More Information
Plus
Please visit www.canadianminingjournal.com for regular updates on what's happening with Canadian mining companies and their personnel both here and abroad. A digital version of the magazine is also available at www.digital.canadianminingjournal.com
CANADA’S
TOP40
COMPANIES
are performing well
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plant operational.
Next Month
Quebec and Atlantic Canada
August 2011• Canadian Mining Journal |
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Editorial
CANADIAN
MiningJournal
August 2011 Vol. 132 — No. 6
Mine Safety is for “sissies”
12 Concorde Place, Toronto, ON. M3C 4J2
Tel. (416) 442-5600 Fax (416) 510-5138
Editor
Russell B. Noble
416 510-6742 [email protected]
By Russell Noble
Field Editor
Marilyn Scales 613 832-9087 [email protected]
ine safety is a topic I could talk about plain wrong. They believe it’s a threat to in almost every issue of the maga- the future of mankind, but as the logical zine. It’s something that I’m familiar rest of us know, that’s ludicrous and
Foreign Correspondent
Jaquelina Jimena [email protected]
M
Northern Correspondent
Bill Braden [email protected]
Western Correspondent
Tanya Laing Gahr
[email protected]
with because unlike most people, I’ve actu- almost as crazy as the headline at the top ally been in mines and know first hand how of this column.
Art Direction
Mark Ryan
- potentially dangerous they can be.
- As I just mentioned, there are a num-
Note that I said “can be” instead of say- ber of groups or individuals out there ing “are” because any place that involves devoted to slamming anything associated machines and massive amounts of rock with mining and one of those I came
- Production Manager
- Print Production Manager
- Phyllis Wright
- Steve Hofmann
Circulation Manager
Cindi Holder
and dirt can be dangerous but quite honestly, I’d rather be a thousand feet down a shaft or hundreds of feet into an open pit than on most of today’s highways. across recently is a ‘consultant’ from Australia who says that mines would be safer places if men weren’t being pressured to show their masculinity and become “macho risk takers.”
416 442-5600, ext. 3544 [email protected]
Publisher
Robert Seagraves
416 510-6891 [email protected]
Sales
Western Canada, Western U.S.A. & Australia
But regardless of the
Ron Sanderson
Specialized Media Associates
403 293-4138
potentials for danger in mines, the truth of the matter is that they are still some of the safer work environments on or more precisely, under, earth.
“Peer pressure (on men at mines sites) ensures safety is only for sissies,” says the consultant. “For most of them, it’s vital to portray themselves as being strong, tough guys. This is a safety issue since they can never show any vulnerability or weakness.”
I don’t know where the consultant did his research but every miner I’ve ever met takes safety as seriously as they do the numbers on their paycheques and the men and women I know who
Group Publisher
Doug Donnelly
President
Bruce Creighton
Vice-president
Alex Papanou
Established 1882
Canadian Mining Journal provides articles and information of practical use to those who work in the technical, administrative and supervisory aspects of exploration, mining and processing in the Canadian mineral exploration and mining industry. Canadian Mining Journal ISSN 1923 - 3418 (Online) ISSN 0008 - 4492 (Print) is published 10 times a year by BIG Magazines LP, a div. of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. BIG is located at 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON, M3C 4J2.
I know there have been recent headlines talking about mishaps where lives have been lost or equipment failures have resulted in shut downs but again, by comparison to the number of injuries that occur daily in more conventional walks-oflife, mining is still safer.
Phone (416) 442-5600.
Legal deposit: National Library, Ottawa. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this magazine are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain the permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information please contact Russell Noble at 416-510-6742.
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Tough and properly equipped but hardly someone you’d call a “sissy.”
And the reason is clear. The majority of work in mines are not stupid enough to mining companies (here in Canada at risk the latter just to be “macho.”
Toronto, ON, M3C 4J2. Publications Mail Agreement #40069240.
Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement PM40069240. Please forward Forms 29B and 67B to 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.
- least) simply don’t fool around when it
- In fact, many of the miners I’ve met
comes to safety. Admittedly every once in are slight in stature but tough as nails and a while something goes wrong but there so are many of the men. again, something occasionally goes wrong with almost everything.
In any event, the ‘teams’ that work in our mines are truly self-governing, espe-
Certain groups and individuals, how- cially when it comes to safety, because ever, would have the public think that one ‘jerk-move’ by anyone can spell disasthings go wrong with mining all the time ter for everyone.
- and they seem bent on convincing almost
- That’s the reason “sissies” don’t work
anyone who will listen that mining is just in mines.
CMJ
Canadian Business Press Indexed by Canadian Business Periodicals Index
August 2011• Canadian Mining Journal |
5
Magazine appoints Eastern Correspondent
Mining
- Volume 133
- August 2011
Matters
Mine rescue team performs well
too along with 10 other teams from
The Diavik mine rescue team will compete western Canada and the northwest in the 10th Biennial National Regional United States. Mine Rescue Competition in Fernie, BC, thanks to its second-place finish in the recent
- Workers’
- Safety
- and
CompensationCommission’s competition in Yellowknife.
Teams competing in
Yellowknife also included Ekati, Snap Lake mines from Northwest Territories, the Meadowbank Mine from Nunavut Territory, and Minto Mine from Yukon Territory.
The rescue team from
Ekati, winners of the Yellowknife competition, will naturally be in Fernie
D’Arcy Jenish
Editor Russ Noble is pleased to announce
the appointment of D’Arcy Jenish as
Canadian Mining Journal’s Eastern Correspondent. D’Arcy, a former Senior Writer at Maclean’s magazine, is the author of seven books and a technical writer with a special interest in mining. He will be responsible for reporting primarily on mining and its people in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. D’Arcy can be reached at [email protected]
The Diavik team included Captain Kelsey Loessi, Vice-captain Kiok Perley, Cody Gagne, Andrew Furlong, James Venera, Yuri Kinakin, Gabino Preciado, and coach Alex Clinton.
Students provide great resource
- When it comes to hiring students for to look at mining as a career.
- the organization’s leaders and drawing
- part-time employment, the Canadian
- One program that is attracting both from AIESEC’s base of more than 50,000
mining industry is almost second to students and potential mining employ- student members in over 107 countries, none. With a shortfall of 100,000 work- ers alike is AIESEC, the world’s largest, the company recently sent 20 Canadians ers predicted within the next decade, the non-profit, international organization to Brazil to work with the company for a mining industry is concerned about designed to explore and develop leader- period of 12 to 18 months. these prospects and through a number ship potential in students. of programs, it has taken an aggressive Vale, for example, is a partner in the dent resources AIESEC has to offer, position of helping encourage students program and through its interaction with contact www.aiesec.ca
For more information on what stu-
|
- Canadian Mining Journal • August 2011
- www.canadianminingjournal.com
6
Meeting strict water codes
BioteQ Environmental Technologies of Vancouver has
just completed its seventh season of water treatment operations at Xstrata Nickel’s Raglan site in the Nunavik Region of northern Quebec.
The ChemSulphide plant treats surface water by applying
ISO 14001 standards for environmental compliance to meet very strict water quality requirements to produce clean water for release to the environment.
It’s anticipated that BioteQ’s plant will treat approximately 1 million cubic meters of water at the Raglan site during the 2011 operating season, depending on the availaibility of water after the snow melt.
Hauling concentrate
CopperMountainMiningCorpispleasedtoannouncethat
the first filtered copper concentrate was recently produced and deposited in the company’s concentrate shed at its new Copper Mountain Mine in southern BC. (See story on Page 18). New 50-tonne super B train-truck units will deliver the concentratetoportwherefacilities(includingatrucktipper) have been built to handle the truck discharging and storage.
More than 1 million cubic meters of water are expected to be treated this year at Xstrata Nickel’s Raglan plant.
August 2011• Canadian Mining Journal |
7
Competitive Edge
Universities:
The New CSR Frontier
Jaquelina Jimena is Canadian Mining Journal’s
Foreign Correspondent. She is a journalist based in South America who specializes in worldwide economic issues and is also an advisor in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Mendoza, Argentina. She can be reached at [email protected]
By Jaquelina Jimena
“We have the best CSR practices in the sec- that one in three employers struggle to fill their competitive advantage. First, univertor. More than 2,400 small and medium- key jobs. This is happening in Japan (80%), sities should promote a true culture of sized suppliers have been invited to par- India (67%), Brazil (57%), Australia (54%) CSR throughout their organizations. ticipate in our “Value Program”, which and Taiwan (54%). Problems related to hir- Second, they should develop social maraims to promote socially responsible prac- ing the right candidates are common in keting actions in order to better commutices so as to improve their productivity in Canada as well. The survey showed 21% in nicate and interact with stakeholders. The a sustainable manner. In addition, our cor- 2010, and, problems connected with hiring development of a vibrant CSR culture will porate tower was recertified by an the right people rose 8 points, in other foster the build-up of human and social
